Job and The So Called Passion

It’s been almost 8 months since the first day I entered Hipwee office for the job interview. I still remember how awkward it was — entering an almost empty office (house, actually), meeting 2 people I barely even knew, took the job to write for a site that has not been launched yet.

Yeah, I tried to google “Hipwee” back then just to found “Do you mean Hippie?” haha those old times.

When my founder asked what makes me qualified to get the job as a writer, I said to him,

“I know I can write. Thus, I want to know whether I can make my writing passion into a professional job or not.”

Looking back now, I was a snobbish bastard, no?  

At the same day, Mas Andhika (my former editor) called to inform that I got accepted. The first days was…..labour work. Wrote 3 articles per day, had no idea what kind of article that would bring readers to the site, wrote more experimental articles, had barbecue with the team, got drunk together, worked at weekend, literally went to the office at Sunday to finish the work, and now…here we are.

I’m not gonna write about our growth (because I am bad at reading the statistics), however after 8 months working here — I realize some important aspect of this industry that literally change my point of view about passion. It is like an eye opener about a very absurd concept of passion that I’ve been believed for almost my entire life.

Working inside this industry never makes me want to skip the day. I woke up (mostly) with a smile, knowing that today I will do something that I genuinely love. Even though now my role is mostly to edit the articles (not write that much anymore) I still can find the joy of working with the words.

To edit the plain sentence into an emotional one. To see how an adjective can change the mood of the article. To create a catchy analogy for a cliche premise.

To be happy when the so-so article can be presented in a right way. Or to curse my self when my editing does not bring any added value into the piece.

Yet, I also understand now that no matter how passionate you are about the job — it will still feel like a real job. Whoever invent this quote should be punished with a death sentence for creating a false dream about passion.

The fact is, at least in my own opinion, the more passionate you are — the more you want to give your A game every time. And dude, believe me that’s tiring!

When you are not passionate about your job you will take your day off as a day off. You can shut down your mind and have fun. That’s not the case when you are engaging inside the field that you are really fond of.

Your mind will still wander to find new ideas. You can not stop yourself from checking the input from the users.

Every conversation can be turned into new concepts.

You will have no holiday, you will feel miserable because you can not have a holiday. Yet, you are the one whose voluntarily willing to work every-single-day. But then, you will complain again for not having a day off. 

Working with passion makes the job bearable. In the same time, it will feel more job-ish compared to the one that you do without any passion.

This still very short journey taught me a lot, that there is no perfect job out there. You can hate your job so much, or you can fall in love with it to deep — both can hurt and destroy you to pieces. To have a job is to endure the pain and to become a learning animal every-single-fucking day. There is always a chance to whine and complain, but every decision to speak it out or turn it into contemplation — placed upon your hand.

For every ups and down, I have no choice but to be grateful for what I am right now. And I hope those who read this not so inspiring writing will also be granted with such pleasure. Good night, Happy Sunday.

xoxo